So, my head is full of yuckiness today. Yesterday my throat was hurting, but today is a day of mucus… and weird colored mucus at that. Orange?!? WTF? I have been cursed with sinus cavities that have a certain amount of feeling. Meaning I can actually feel when a sinal chamber “clears itself” when I am blowing my nose. I am delightful company at parties.

Editor’s note: There is not an editor, but I have a note anyway. This post is taking more than one day to write because of ailment sleepiness. My apologies, and I am not going to go in and change the language to reflect which day I answered which questions. Consider the writing of this yesterday and today as if it were one 48 hour day. This week is never going to end.

Anyway “sickness” is the topic, so let’s get to it with my limited energy. Thanks this week go to Aunt Linda, Nicole,Jared, Matt, Alesha, Susan,the wife, and Some Other Guy. Here come the questions.

1. When did taking a "mental health" day become a reason to use a sick day?I used them when I was in Jr High School, so about 30 years ago.

2. How are you feeling? (That counts as a question, right?)Mostly better. The sinus congestion is a pain, but my throat is better.

3. How do you help people who are sick? For me, people visited, called, sent cards, provide meals, provided money, just sat with me for hours in the hospital, and so much more.I always want to be left alone when I am sick, so I often just leave people to their own devices when they are sick. Some people see my lack of interaction as not being thoughtful where I consider it an active gift of healing space.

4. Do you even know that some people you know are or have been sick? I'm easy with a big scar on my head, but not everyone is so obvious.That is a good question. Sometimes symptoms are the easiest indicator of sickness, but those are often much more associated with common illness or food poisoning kinds of things. For more internal facing ailments, such as brain cancer, for example, there is no real indicator until it becomes readily apparent that there is something wrong.

5. If I'm sick, will I get better? What does that mean for each person who is ill?It depends on the person sick and the illness they have. Not everyone is going to get better. Even in our technologically advanced society as it is, some illnesses are the end.

6. What do you say to a sick person that knows he or she isn't going to get better.Part of that is following their lead, but I would not suggest sugar coating it. Acknowledging the fact of the terminal condition is almost paramount, though. You cannot simply use impressive denial skills to act like something is not terminal when it is. If acceptance is not part of the process, you cannot find beauty in wrapping up that person’s journey.

7. How do families support their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, kids, and others, who are sick?Families support all sorts of ways. It really is a continuum. Some handle it way better than others.

8 How do people pay for medical care? Many Americans don't have insurance, or may have limited insurance. I'm lucky to have great insurance, but it doesn't work that way for everyone. I know a guy who spent more on his arm surgery than I paid on my brain surgery.That is a crazy hard question in the US. In other modern nations it is simple, you pay your taxes, you get your medical care. Here, you declare bankruptcy and protect what assets you can.

9. Do you enjoy Disturbed, the Sickness? I know I do.

It makes me smile in spite of myself with the “Oh, Wa-ah-ah-at.” I never really got into Disturbed or the other heavy almost tribal drum beats with crunchy guitar, shout music. They hit about 5 years after I was in my metal phase.

10. Feed a fever, starve a cold... or the opposite... i'm not sure. any scientific proof to that? I kind of doubt it, sort of like 'liquor before beer, never fear. beer before liquor... you're still an alcoholic.'I think the beer before liquor, you’re still an alcoholic is one that has some data to back it up. Feed a Cold and starve a fever haven’t really ever (to my limited knowledge) made it past folk remedy in terms of peer reviewed research. That would be a difficult trial to create controls for.

11. How sick is sick enough for a) the kids to miss school, b) you to miss worka) We pretty much let the kids work on the honor system. We maaaay need to be a bit more vigilant with the youngest.b) I pretty much go with how poorly I would make others feel around me. So no serious sniffles (I might get some pushback from coworkers on this one), no seriously productive coughing, no fever.

12. Do you & the wife have the same thresholds for a & b above?I don’t think so. When one works for themselves like the wife does, there is not much of a safety net to fall back on so work just needs to get done, yo.

13. Is it just an old wive’s tail that if you go outside with a wet head you will be sick?That is anecdotally false. Back in my long haired youth, I would leave the house all the time with damp or even wet hair and because I was childless and nigh invulnerable to pathogens since the wee petri-dish hellspawn had not compromised my health at that point.

14. Worse sickness you have ever had?It is a toss-up for acute illness versus drawn out. About 20 years ago I got some viral bug that caused liquid to eject forth from both ends of my alimentary canal. Sometimes simultaneously. It was over in a day or so. It was a rough day or so, but only a day or so. The long term was that I got the influenza when I was a kid. Straight up 2 weeks of being out of commission.

15. Is vitamin C and other herbal things just a placebo treatment or is there some efficacy to using them as a treatment?Remember DR Andrew Weil the holistic MD who is all into alternative medicines, well he said, adding Vitamin C or echinacea or zinc or cadmium or other some such nonsense, can’t necessarily hurt. I have never found a medical professional who said that is not the case. Worse comes to worse, you pee out a bunch of vitamins and minerals.

16. What are your thoughts on addiction? Is it really a disease?Well, my immediate answer is “yes,” but the more I think about it, I have a hard time categorizing it as a disease. Disease seems to indicate some level of ability to be cured. I would lean more towards considering it a condition. That seems more like it could be problem that could be mitigated but not eliminated.

17. How did “sick” become slang for “good” or “effective?” As in “That was a sick burn, brah.”I am really not very sure how “sick” came to have that particular slang meaning, but I imagine it followed a line from from awesome to bad to sick. It has the same kind of opposite colloquial meaning.

18. Have you ever experienced motion sickness?When I was a kid I think I would sometimes get motion sickness sensations, but I do not tend to have a grumpy belly associated with slow repetitive rocking back and forth motions. That being said, catch me on the right day after eating the right meal with the right motion and I will be easily yarfing over the railing on a watercraft.

19. That “in sickness and in health” thing, I mean, it’s like, just a suggestion, right?Nope. That should be the real deal… and you are a terrible person for asking. You know who you are.

20. Why do some people get motion sickness and others not? And how do you ridiculous people who don’t get motion sickness tolerate cruises anyway?Well, for that part one piece of the question, from my poor memory of the wife having vertigo... it has to do with these little crystals that are on the ends of these tiny cilia in the inner ear. The fit has to be perfect or there is some vertigo, and motion sickness is one of effects of that. As to the second part, I really don’t know. I guess it is the all you can eat and the forced disconnection from society because internet connection is so expensive.

To recap:It looks like someone hit skipped her car while it was parkedBefore her meeting the car was driving fineAfter the meeting, however, the car’s steering was messed upNow we are in the claims process for the carThe claims process is painfulI also had a CAT scan for my noggin todayIt is time to get that deviated septum fixedLittle Man did the walk out today... we are proud parentsI have edited on a first pass through about 75% of the NaNoWriMo book that I did a few years agoI think I need to do at least one more pass before I allow anyone else to give it a passAfter that second pass I will start lining up some artists to do single page illustrationsAny artists out there want to get on the radar, hit me upStill ejecting weird colors from my noseAnd my sinuses are still a bit on the full sideMan, I need some sleepSorry about the Wednesday postTuesday was a rough dayHave a great week everyone